Running bash command with python subprocess

Question

I have a command in my bash_profile such as id=12345 which I defined the following alias

alias obs="echo $id" since the id will chance over time.

Now what I want to do is call this alias in my python script for different purposes. My default shell is bash so I have tried the following based on the suggestions on the web

import subprocess

subprocess.call('obs', shell=True, executable='/bin/bash')

subprocess.call(['/bin/bash', '-i', '-c', obs])

subprocess.Popen('obs', shell=True,executable='/bin/bash')

subprocess.Popen(['/bin/bash', '-c','-i', obs])

However, none of them seems to work! What am I doing wrong!

Shell aliases are in interactive shell feature. You cannot access them from Python. You can access the environment variable (id), only. — Keith
– Keith, Commented Apr 12, 2020 at 14:00

AKX · Accepted Answer · 2020-04-12 13:52:31Z

2

.bash_profile is not read by Popen and friends.

Environment variables are available for your script, though (via os.environ).

You can use export in your Bash shell to export a value as an environment variable, or use env:

export MY_SPECIAL_VALUE=12345
python -c "import os; print(os.environ['MY_SPECIAL_VALUE'])"
# or
env MY_SPECIAL_VALUE=12345 python -c "import os; print(os.environ['MY_SPECIAL_VALUE'])"

answered Apr 12, 2020 at 13:52

AKX

171k16 gold badges146 silver badges228 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

2 Comments

Mark Setchell Over a year ago

Or even without the env like this MY_SPECIAL_VALUE=18 python ...

AKX Over a year ago

@MarkSetchell Sure, that works in Bash, but env is portable.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Running bash command with python subprocess

1 Answer 1

2 Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

2 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related